Delaware and the 1964 Civil Rights Act

In the years leading up to the passage of the Civil Right Act, racial segregation and discrimination were common in Delaware, as elsewhere in the country. Delaware’s two Republican Senators, J. Caleb Boggs and John J. Williams voted to approve the law, as did the lone House member from the state, Harris McDowell, a Democrat. On June 10, 1964, Senator Williams cast the decisive, 67th vote that ended a Senate filibuster, thus bringing the bill to a vote in the full Senate, where it passed. The House approved the Senate version of the bill, and President Lyndon B. Johnson signed it into law on July 2, 1964. The passage of the Act brought about the first meaningful civil rights legislation since the end of Reconstruction. Senator Williams received numerous letters from constituents, both for and against the bill. Soon after the passage of the Civil Rights Act, the last segregated, one-room school houses were closed in Delaware. In addition, the Delaware chapter of the NAACP called upon hospitals and other institutions to offer more opportunities to African Americans in the areas of employment and housing. Newspaper reports from the period reflect some of the tensions and changes that were taking place in the state.